We Suck and We Love to Fail!
Embracing Imperfection and Building Confidence Through Improv Comedy
Have you ever seen improvised theater, aka improvisation? Were you blown away at the originality and humor that the performers produced on the spot? What if you could take some of those ideas and use them in real life?
As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I took an improv class earlier this year. Being shy was tough, but it made me more self-assured and comfortable trying new things. Feeling the fear and doing it anyway boosted my confidence. I started focusing on seeing what happens instead of worrying about success. I'm still very introverted and shy at times but it opened doors for me too.
I couldn't take a Level 2 class afterwards, so I read a couple books instead, one of them being The Improv Handbook by Deborah Frances-White and Tom Salinsky. They started The Spontaneity Shop in London and have decades of experience.
This book is looooooooooooooong. It took me a month to finish it. The authors explored the history of improv and different theories.
My recommendation? Take a Level 1 improv class and read only section 2 of this book.
Section 2 contains the most direct advice on how to improvise. I will highlight a few of the key ideas below. You don't have to read the other sections in the book unless you want to learn more about the history and details of improv.
“We suck and we love to fail!”
Children are eager to volunteer and try regardless of their experience. They have blind confidence.
Many adults are scared to try new things unless they feel sure they won't mess up or look silly.
Instead of fearing to look or sound dumb, adopt the attitude of a kid. Feel thrilled to get the experience of trying.
The phrase the authors instruct their new students in the first lesson is to yell together “We suck and we love to fail!”.
“Children approach playing games, or doing exercises, or being given the chance to try something new, very differently from adults. Children approach these situations with one mission, and that mission is to have lots of goes. They sometimes actually rate their success that way: “I had four goes and you only had three—I win!” Adults are very different. We want to sit back, assess—from our seats!— whether we’d be any good at the task in question. If we think we’d be successful at it, then and only then will we want a go. If we think it is something we would not be good at, we would usually prefer to have no go at all. Children want lots of goes, but adults want one perfect go.”
"Yes and..."
Every improv interaction has three key elements: an offer, an acceptance, or a block.
When someone in the scene introduces an action or an idea, they are making an offer.
The key skill in improv is to "accept" the offer. Now, that doesn't mean you say "yes!". In fact, your answer can be "No!".
Accepting means you agree to the reality given. You agree to the situation the offer presented. If your partner says you're in a 1950s diner, you play along with that concept.
Blocking is when you don't play along. You reject the offer, and you block the flow of the scene. If you say we're at a fast-food place and I say no, we're in an art museum, that confuses everyone.
In improv and real life, it is crucial to learn how to accept and work with offers. It can make you a better team player and a better communicator.
"“Will you marry me?” is not blocked by the response
“No,” since we now have a story about unrequited love. Nor is it blocked by
the response “Yes,” since now we have a story about a wedding."
"What comes next?"
One of the most counterintuitive concepts in improv is to do the OBVIOUS thing. Your goal is to build a stable PLATFORM for a story to take place. You and the scene partner are figuring out your characters and the setting in real time. Your goal isn't to be clever, it's to be coherent and to escalate. Going in the OBVIOUS direction brings out better humor.
Many newbies will try GAG, CANCEL, or WIMP on the offer given to them. They toss the hero into INSTANT TROUBLE like "Oh, no! Some magical monster just appeared and ate your head!".
They GAG when they try to make a joke for a quick laugh, but it contributes nothing to the story. They CANCEL when they make a counteroffer that deflects what's given them. They WIMP when they don't build on the offer given to them, missing the "and" in "Yes, and..."
As you are building on the obvious "what comes next" you can start to REINCORPORATE ideas from the scene. Something mentioned or established earlier can come back in. You're on a camping trip where things are going wrong. Later in the scene, you recover the lantern mentioned in the beginning. The scene becomes a story, not random jokes strung together, creating a vivid reality.
Be obvious, add information, raise the stakes, and look for ways to reincorporate ideas. These will all build structure to the scene creating relatable characters and situations.
I like this quote below from the book. What seems "obvious" to you can be original and insightful to others. Go for your obvious.
"The other vital thing to recognize is that what is “obvious” to one person
may be entirely overlooked by everyone else—although they will see how
“obvious” it is once they’ve heard it. Striving for originality means that
stories lurch from arbitrary idea to arbitrary idea in a very unsatisfactory
way. Even more important, everyone’s “original” version of the story will
seem disconnected and bizarre in much the same way. What’s surprising
and delightful is that with the “obvious” story, sometimes an “obvious”
idea is unique to one individual. Being obvious means you are tapping right
into your unconscious creative processes. It is the most direct route to your
talent. Your obvious is not the same as mine, and your obvious is your
talent."
What's your status?
In your scene you need to establish statuses among the characters. Is one of them the boss or an authority figure? Is one of them a reasonable character while the other one is wild? You are either HIGH or LOW status and you should act and speak in a way to emphasize which end of the spectrum you are in.
You now have statuses, and they must interact with each other. This is what drives the story.
ABC: Always Be Changing. What drives a scene is the emotional change in the characters. How do the characters react to the actions or information given to them? The characters don't have to have big mood swings, but the audience wants to see them affected.
Two friends are talking at a park about the pleasant weather. There is no tension about their statuses or "ABC" in emotion. It won't be fun to watch.
A police officer catches someone spray painting on a wall. The person later claims to be a world-famous artist like Banksy. The scene becomes more dynamic and much more interesting to watch.
Greatest Hits Tape
You will make a ton of mistakes and duds in improv (and in life too).
The authors stress at the end that it happens to everyone, especially the pros. It can be easy to dwell in the negative.
You want to create a mental bank of positive memories and call it your "greatest hits tape". To boost your talent and confidence, recall times when things went well and right.
This concept reminded me of the "mental bank teller" from The Magic of Thinking Big that I reviewed before. (It always amazes me to see similar ideas pop up in various places and contexts).
“Now play it back. Play it back. Play it back. When you go home tonight, lie in bed and construct a Greatest Hits Tape of all your best moments and play it over. By doing this you reinforce your own talent, and when you come to improvise again, your brain will remember it as something you love to do because you 3have a talent for it. You must reinforce your own talent because this is a tough business and you can’t expect anyone else to do it for you. Never let a teacher, director or other performer make you feel untalented. One way to do this is make a Greatest Hits Tape in your head, add to it regularly and play it back often.”
I'm going to stop at this point. Section 2 has a ton more concepts and techniques. Section 2 is ~270 pages long and on its own could be an entire book! You can apply the important ideas right away. These are a few of the highlights.
Please remember that in the improv field there are differing opinions on what works best. The authors of this book have their own opinions but they're clear about it.
In an improv class, the instructors may focus on different things than these authors. But don't let that confuse or discourage you. As a beginner improv student, you can apply the basic elements discussed in section 2.
These elements are helpful for general life skills application too. Learning to say “Yes, and” or having confidence to try something that might fail. Having a mental tape of positive memories. Figuring out status roles in situations. Speaking out your “obvious” next thing. Try them and see what happens.